


Music from the Heart

by Multiple_Universes



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Quarantine, inspired by the coronavirus quarantine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multiple_Universes/pseuds/Multiple_Universes
Summary: A curse falls over the land. It keeps people stuck indoors and will not let them out. The most powerful magician in the land seems unable to break the hold of the curse. But, as they say, love will always find a way.Inspired by videos of people singing from their balconies during the coronavirus quarantine.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 14
Kudos: 57
Collections: Lock Down Fest





	Music from the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t mean to take such a long hiatus from writing, but (jut like for pretty much everyone else) my life changed a lot in the last few weeks. On the one hand, I spent several days feeling too upset to write anything at all. On the other hand, I now have less time to write than I used to. Then I saw a Tumblr post about the Lockdown Fest and thought about all those videos online about people singing from their balconies and knew I had to write something. This is dedicated to everyone out there helping and everyone who is in lockdown, unable to leave. We have to stay strong!

A curse fell over the land. On a morning that seemed no different form the one before it, people stepped out of their homes to set off on their errands when they found themselves turning around and their feet carrying them back inside. Some of them frowned and took it as a sign to remain home while others refused to submit to the whims of their feet. Again they tried and, again, they found themselves turning around to face their own doors and stepping inside as if they’d just returned home. One man was exceptionally stubborn and tried to leave his house as many as ten times and just as many times his feet carried him back inside.

The people of the land had seen magic performed before and knew that it could be done. They understood at once that this was the doing of a spell. Some tried to reverse it, but, despite their best efforts, they had no luck.

The prince that ruled the land was a calm and wise ruler. He discovered the curse for himself that very morning when he tried to leave his palace for a stroll through his garden. He, too, found himself entering his palace once more and was very astonished to come face to face with a servant he’d thought he’d just left behind.

“Did Your Majesty forget something?” the servant asked helpfully.

The prince shook his head. “I did not. Send for the court magician at once!” he ordered and made for the throne room.

By a great stroke of luck, the court magician had spent the night before in the palace. As soon as he got the summons, he rushed over to join the prince.

A short while later, word passed through the land of the curse. It was no ordinary curse, people said. The court magician himself couldn’t break it.

“But the court magician is the most powerful magician in the land!” some protested.

“I don’t have any food at home. How will I live if I have nothing to eat?” others pointed out, quite rightly.

And they all asked, “What do we do now?”

The magician sent out a spell to ask people to remain calm. He would find a way to break the curse, he promised, and he would use his magic to make sure everyone in the city got food.

But life in the land seemed to have stopped.

Victor Nikiforov was no magician. He didn’t know anything about spells or curses. He couldn’t do any magic whatsoever, but he was convinced that his neighbour was magic and nothing could make him change his mind.

Victor often thought that his life was like a comedy, but one where the joke was always on him. Six times people had confessed their love to him and every time he’d found himself apologizing and explaining that he was in love with someone else and every single time he’d said those words they’d been a lie.

But now they weren’t. Now there _was_ someone and that someone was barely aware of Victor’s presence. He lived in the apartment across the street from Victor’s and never once did he look Victor’s way.

Every morning when Victor passed by him with a flustered “hello”, the man would turn away and utter something that sounded cold and distant. And Victor had no way to move past that first brief greeting.

When the curse fell over the city and Victor could no longer leave his apartment building, it occurred to him that he wouldn’t get to walk past the man who lived across the street from him. He wouldn’t feel his heart skip a beat as his eyes fell on the man’s back. He wouldn’t get a chance to speed up and act as if he’d stumbled into his neighbour by accident. There wouldn’t be that brief moment of hope that this would be the day when he would find the courage to speak to the man beyond a simple “hello”.

He felt robbed.

Victor sat in his room with his head lowered.

He didn’t think about how lonely he would be, stuck alone in his apartment. Neither did he think about the fact that he was a figure skater and that being trapped indoors meant that he wouldn’t be able to practice. All he could think about was the man from across the street.

 _Pull yourself together!_ He scolded himself, grabbing his head with both hands. _You barely know him!_

But there was a tightness in his chest that refused to go away.

It made thinking impossible.

 _I need to find something to do,_ he thought, but it was more an echo of a thought than a proper one. _There are all those chores that have been piling up…_

He couldn’t sit there like this, he told himself, so he got up and went to retrieve his mop and broomstick. It didn’t take long to get through his apartment and clean every room. He did his laundry next. He went through all the chores without thinking as his heart curled up in his chest and wept.

All this would be over soon, he told himself. He would just have to get through a couple of days like this and then the magician would sort it out. The court magician was the most powerful in the land, so something like this wouldn’t take him a lot of time to sort out, he was sure of it.

But three days went by, then four, until finally a whole week passed and still nothing had changed.

A gloom settled over him and he began to lose hope that the curse would ever be lifted.

 _Wasn’t_ the court magician the most powerful in the land? Why hadn’t he lifted the curse yet? Why was it taking him so long?

Victor sat in his bed with his legs raised and his arms folded around his knees. He didn’t want to get up. He wanted to spend the whole day here. What was the point of getting up? He’d run out of things to do at home and he didn’t know what he was supposed to do now. There were so many hours in a day, but he had no way of filling all of them.

He closed his eyes and imagined he was out on a skating rink, drifting over the ice, about to jump.

He felt jealous of his past self. He’d been so free a mere week ago! A mere _month_ ago he was the happiest person ever!

Tears rose to his eyes. He was a figure skater. He belonged out on the ice. He was supposed to be working on a new routine for the upcoming competition, not sitting in his apartment with nothing to do!

Music filled the room. It was a cheery upbeat tune, but it only made Victor more upset. How could anyone be happy at a time like this? Was such a thing really possible?

He wanted to go shout at the person and demand they turn it off. Now, more than ever, he needed some peace and quiet.

Victor’s hands tightened into fists as he fought the urge down. He tried to tell himself that the music would stop playing soon.

 _It’s not as if it’s the middle of the night,_ he tried to reason with himself. _People are allowed to listen to music, if they want to._

The song ended and another began. This one was slow and romantic. It was a love song that Victor really enjoyed listening to, one that couldn’t leave him completely impassive.

He climbed out of bed and tried to figure out where the music was coming from. And then a beautiful voice began to sing, filling the air like a spell.

Victor walked to the window and swung it open, unable to resist the pull of the voice.

It was the man from across the street. He’d opened all the windows, turned on the music and sung along to it as he dived deep into what looked like spring cleaning.

Victor’s mouth dropped open. He hardly dared to breathe, afraid that he’d miss a single note of the song.

When the song ended he allowed himself to take a deep breath. How could he hope to win over someone like that? The most he could possibly hope for is that they could become friends, but even that felt beyond his reach.

 _You’ve bewitched me heart and soul,_ he thought, joining his hands and continuing to stare. _I don’t know what to do anymore._

The man turned, caught Victor’s eye and then turned hastily away.

Victor’s heart fell. _He hates me. He won’t even look at me._

The next song began to play, but this time the man didn’t sing along to it. It rang hollowly in his apartment, making Victor feel even more lonely.

 _“A love like a dream,”_ the radio sang, _“made my home a happy one.”_

 _Love never made me happy,_ Victor thought miserably.

 _“I gaze into your eyes like a mirror,”_ the song went on, _“afraid to lose my reflection in them.”_

He closed his own eyes and imagined himself standing in front of his neighbour and gazing into his eyes. He imagined seeing his own reflection. The man’s eyes were dark, Victor knew that much, but he’d never had enough time to really study them. Were they deep, or soft, or hard, or what?

_“A love like this can only be found in dreams, but our love is real right now.”_

_It only happens to me in my dreams,_ Victor thought sadly.

He wasn’t sure when he started singing. He’d only intended to mouth along to the words, but when the song reached the chorus, he opened his eyes and burst out, “ _A love like a dream made my house a happy one!_ ”

His eyes fell on his neighbour and he braced himself for the full embarrassment of the man turning around and staring at him, but the man remained still.

Victor stepped out onto his balcony, continuing to sing along. He _needed_ the man to turn around and look at him now. He needed his attention and he no longer cared what the man thought of him as long as he looked at him.

The song rose like a wave that threatened to drown the place and Victor felt his own emotions surge. He was so in love, he told himself, letting the feeling echo in his bones. Love.

Victor got to the very end, raising his arms dramatically just as both he and the singer both begged, “ _but, despite the rules of dreams, don’t let our love ever end!_ ”

There was a brief silence and applause filled the air.

He turned his head this way and that and found to his astonishment that the balconies around him were filled with people, all watching him with smiles on their faces. The man in the apartment opposite was clapping too. He stood at the window with a look of utter amazement on his face as if Victor had done something unbelievable.

Only then did Victor realize that he was still in his pajama pants, his hair dishevelled and his face a mess. All the blood rose to his face and he darted back into his apartment, closing the balcony doors behind him and locking them, as if afraid that he would be followed. He leaned his back against the door and lowered his head. Stupid! Stupid! The man was probably laughing at him now.

Someone shouted something that, to his ears, sounded like an insult and he clapped his hands over his ears to block it out. He didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it. He didn’t want to ever show his face ever again.

After a few minutes, his hands dropped tiredly at his sides. He slid down to the floor and curled up with his knees pressed into his chest.

The radio played on, as if mocking him. The whole street was probably laughing at him now. He would never live this down.

The man’s voice reached his ears. He was singing along to the radio now. Was he mocking Victor, or was he just singing? Could anyone be that cruel? He was terrified of finding out.

Still the singing continued. The man had a very beautiful voice that was impossible to resist. Victor found himself listening even though he’d promised himself that he wouldn’t. He crawled over to one of the windows and peered out carefully.

The man was still singing from his balcony. When he reached the end, people applauded and demanded more.

Victor ducked, afraid that he’d been seen. He was prepared to listen to the man sing all day long, but he wasn’t going to own up to the fact. He wasn’t here. He was busy doing something very important. In fact, he had lots of stuff to do.

“ _The rays of the golden sun are swallowed up by darkness and once more a wall rises between us,_ ” the man sang out.

Victor hardly dared to breathe. This time there was no music accompanying the singing, which could only mean one thing: he’d picked this song on purpose.

It was a song about two lovers who’d been separated, but who hoped that once the night was over they would be together again. It was very romantic and one of Victor’s favourite songs. When he’d first heard it, he’d fantasized a lot about someone singing it to him.

 _He isn’t singing it to you!_ the rational part of his mind reminded him.

He closed his eyes and joined his hands together. For a few seconds, he wanted to imagine that the song _was_ for him. Surely, there was no harm in _that_!

The song tugged at him, pulling him to his feet and making him peer out.

The man was standing right at the balcony railings now, singing out in the direction of Victor’s apartment. No, he was just facing that way because it was convenient for him. This _wasn’t_ for Victor. It _wasn’t_!

“ _I know that happiness awaits us,_ ” the man sang on, arms wide, as if waiting for Victor to leap into them.

Victor ducked and hid again. Then he pinched himself. But this was no dream.

The song ended and another round of applause followed. Victor’s heart sank. He was just putting on a show to entertain their neighbours, that was all. The song wasn’t some kind of message and it definitely wasn’t performed for his benefit.

Victor gave a heavy sigh and made for the bathroom. He had to get dressed. There had to be some kind of chores that needed doing.

The curse weighed heavily on Yuuri Katsuki. He wasn’t the most outgoing person in the world, but he knew the true joy of a good walk out on a sunny day and now that simple pleasure was denied him.

The apartment felt smaller than ever as he paced the length of it, trying to think of ways to keep himself busy.

He didn’t get started on his chores right away. First he did a few things he’d wanted to do for a long time. There was that book his friend Phichit had gifted him two years ago that had waited for him to find the time to read it. Then there was the book that his friend Guang Hong had recommended and that so many people had talked about.

A week later he realized that he’d let slip a lot of things he should’ve done already and leapt onto them with a sudden enthusiasm that surprised even him.

There was so much to do, but instead of starting with a smaller task, he decided to tackle the biggest one first and set off cleaning out the whole apartment. He opened all the windows, turned on the music and set to cleaning the whole place from start to finish.

He didn’t know when he started to sing along, but once he started it was hard to stop, even though he wondered if he really ought to be singing at a time like this.

He sang one song after another, losing count of how many songs it’s been since the start and not really caring about it either.

It didn’t occur to him to think that he’d gotten carried away until his eye fell on the window completely by accident and he saw his neighbour from across the street staring at him with a shocked expression on his face.

Embarrassed to be caught out like this, he turned away, feeling all the blood rush to his face.

How could he forget that others could see him? How could he have been so foolish as to think that no one would hear him with all the windows open wide and him singing at the top of his voice?

His face was burning. He felt ready to die from shame. He couldn’t move. He stood absolutely still, waiting for the laughter and the insults that were bound to follow.

But the man didn’t laugh and he didn’t insult him. What he heard in response caught him completely off guard: the man was singing.

At first, Yuuri was convinced that he was hearing things, but as the song went on, he realized that what he was hearing wasn’t an odd echo, but definitely singing.

Why was he singing?

Yuuri stood still and listened, terrified of meeting the man’s eye and determined to not miss a single note.

He was always scared of looking into the man’s face. Every time they ran into each other, Yuuri was afraid of the very real possibility that one day he would catch the man’s mouth in a kiss before he could stop himself.

_Oh god, what do I do now?_

He didn’t spend a long time contemplating this question. The pull of the other man’s voice was too strong for him to resist. Slowly he turned around and allowed himself to watch the man.

It was obvious at first glance that the man had only just climbed out of bed. As soon as the observation occurred to him, Yuuri fretted, worried that he’d woken up his neighbour with his singing.

“ _But, despite the nature of dreams, don’t let our love ever end!_ ” he concluded, his voice making Yuuri’s heart tremble.

As soon as the song ended, he broke out into applause. The response came without thinking and he didn’t stop to question it. More clapping joined his and only then did he realize that there had been other people watching.

His neighbour flushed and ran into his apartment.

 _There’s nothing to feel embarrassed about!_ Yuuri wanted to shout to him. _That was really good!_

When the next song played, he sang to it as loudly as he dared, hoping his singing would coax the man out again, but all with no luck.

After several songs he gave up and returned to cleaning the apartment. This time he made sure to put instrumental music on to avoid the temptation to sing again.

Another morning dawned and still there were no news from the palace. The court magician was working hard on breaking the curse, the neighbours told Yuuri, but, unlike last time, there were no stories about the magician staying up late, or how he succeeded in standing outside for a full minute before the curse took hold again and sent him back in. They’d shared dozens of stories like that before, claiming they just had to wait a little longer.

Yuuri wondered if people were starting to lose hope.

It was hard to hold on to it, certainly. At times, he thought about how powerful the court magician was and how every year he put on a magnificent display of magic during the holidays. How strong was the curse, then, if someone as great as him couldn’t break it? At other times, he’d remember the previous time the land had been cursed. It had taken the magician a week to break that one.

 _It’ll just take a little longer this time, that’s all,_ he told himself. _He hasn’t let us down before and he won’t now._ But it was hard to keep telling himself that.

So he set all thoughts of that aside. He concentrated all his efforts on all those little tasks that he’d let pile up at home and, when lunchtime came, he – like so many others on his street – came out onto his balcony to eat and enjoy the fresh air.

The balcony of the apartment opposite his was empty.

He took his time eating, hoping to catch a glimpse of his neighbour. Didn’t he also normally have lunch out on his balcony?

But the balcony doors remained closed.

He wasn’t coming. With every passing moment Yuuri became more certain of the fact.

“Yuuri!” someone called. He turned and saw the neighbour on his right grinning at him from his balcony. “Will you sing something for us today?”

He was suddenly aware of how many people were peering at him from balconies up and down the street.

“Yes, please!” someone called out.

“Can I request a song?” someone else asked.

There were people in every balcony now, except for the balcony that he cared about.

Yuuri threw a miserable glance at the empty balcony.

“Please!” several voices begged together.

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright.”

For some reason, several people took this as an invitation to give their requests. They shouted the names of different songs at the same time.

Yuuri felt at a loss. Now what was he supposed to do?

“Come on, everyone!” the neighbour to his right called out. “One song at a time!”

An argument followed and Yuuri felt a strong temptation to go hide in his apartment. After a few minutes, however, they managed to settle on which song should be first and voiced their request.

Yuuri didn’t waste time questioning their choice. He merely nodded, as if this was exactly what he had expected to sing.

He stood facing the windows of the apartment opposite his and sent his voice at them, hoping that his singing could draw the man out just like it had last time.

Two songs later, the doors of the balcony opposite his opened and the man appeared.

Yuuri’s voice faltered for a moment as he took in his neighbour’s features. The man’s hair was carefully arranged on his head, his eyes shone and there was a happy smile on his lips.

Yuuri stepped to the very end of his balcony and continued singing.

His neighbour came to the very end of his own. He set the elbow of one hand down on the balcony railing and placed his chin in his hand. The smile didn’t leave his face.

He hardly thought about much after that. When he finished one song someone asked for another and he obliged without a second thought. He was so lost in his own world that when he started to sing a duet someone had requested he was caught completely off-guard when the other man picked up the other half of the song.

Yuuri leaned out of the balcony, as if trying to touch the other man, but their balconies were too far apart for that. He let his voice rise in volume, losing himself completely in the song. Across the street, the other man was getting equally carried away.

The last note rang out and they were rewarded with applause louder than before.

“Bravo!” someone shouted.

“Another one!” someone else agreed.

Yuuri smiled shyly at his neighbour. “Will you sing another duet with me?” he asked.

“I would love to,” his neighbour responded.

This time when they sang the rest of the street join in. Some people clapped, some people fetched items from their apartments – guitars, spoons, pots, pans, anything that could act as an instrument and they filled the street with noise.

Yuuri spun around, wishing he could invite his neighbour to a dance. He wanted this moment to go on forever. He wanted the two of them to sing together for all eternity.

But he wasn’t a professional singer. He wasn’t used to singing for long periods of time. After a dozen, or so songs, he began to lose his voice. The sounds of the street grew quieter and he suspected that people were getting tired. He finished the song and called out to his neighbour, “Let’s take a break?”

The neighbour nodded. “Let’s sing together tomorrow!”

Tomorrow. Yuuri felt his heart soar. The promise of something tomorrow made him forget that he would, in all probability, not be able to leave his house tomorrow. The promise of tomorrow gave him enough strength to return to his apartment, do more chores, have dinner and then go to sleep. The thought of tomorrow made it hard to fall asleep and he stayed up for at least an hour thinking about it with his face buried in his pillow. Tomorrow…

He was out on his balcony as soon as he was ready to have breakfast and – to his great delight – his neighbour was there as well.

“Good morning!” the man called.

“Good morning!” Yuuri shouted back. This felt so surreal. Was it really happening, or was all this just a feverish dream?

For a moment, he was afraid that he would wake up to find that the curse had never taken hold and he’d never had a chance to sing with his neighbour. But nothing changed: he continued to stand on the balcony with his neighbour in full view.

“Did you sleep well?” his neighbour asked.

“Yes,” Yuuri answered without thinking and realized too late that he’d lied.

There was a wistful look on the other man’s face as he leaned on his arm and gave Yuuri a radiant smile. “Me too.”

Yuuri felt a blush rise to his chest. “Do you want to… um… sing together again today? After lunch, I mean?”

The man’s eye lit up, making Yuuri’s heart skip a beat. “Definitely!”

That “definitely” made Yuuri feel like he could fly. He nodded and remembered about his breakfast. His food was a little cold now, but he barely noticed. After all, that wasn’t important. At least, not in the way that getting to sing with his neighbour was.

After lunch, as agreed, they sang together again. And after lunch on the following day. And the one after that. Yuuri sang as if his life depended upon it, putting his heart into every line and not taking his eyes off the other man.

The prince walked up and down the hallways of the palace, feeling restless. Because of the curse, he couldn’t accept any visitors. There was little he could do but wait and it made him feel useless. The prince was the sort of ruler who preferred to be occupied, but – apart from making certain that his subjects would be provided for – there was very little he could do.

He often walked the palace after eating and almost always indulged in melancholy thoughts about how much more the country need his magician than himself.

That day the thoughts grow too heavy for him and he decided to see if the magician had made any progress.

The court magician spent most of his days in a large chamber under the palace, the walls of which were covered from floor to ceiling in magic runes. The floor was painted with a large magic circle. The magician himself stood at the very centre of it with a tall staff in his hands and with his eyes closed.

The prince paused at the door, not wishing to break the magician’s concentration and waited patiently for him to finish what he was doing.

The magician let out a long sigh and turned to face the prince. “Your Majesty,” he said with a brittle smile.

“How many times must I ask you to address me by name when we’re alone like this?” the prince asked, walking towards the magician.

“Once more, then.” The magician’s smile widened, but there was still a deep sadness in his eyes.

The prince held out a tray covered with food. “You haven’t eaten anything since breakfast, have you?”

“I haven’t,” the magician conceded. He gave a slight shake of his head. “I almost have it. I’m so sure of it! Every day around this time I can feel the curse get weaker, but by the evening it’s as strong as before.”

“Maybe the magic depends on the time of the day?” the prince suggested.

“It didn’t at first,” the magician countered. “I searched for a weakness in the spell, but there was nothing…” He frowned. “There’s something I’m missing, but I can’t figure out what it is.”

“Maybe there’s another magician trying to help?” the prince suggested. A weakness in the spell was very welcome news, so why was the magician looking so troubled by the discovery? What else was there? “Are you suspecting a trap?”

The magician met his eye. “I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “Maybe someone is succeeding where I am not. I don’t claim to be the most powerful magician in the land.” He noticed that the prince was about to interrupt and gave his head a little shake. “I know I’m not. But…” he looked away.

The prince placed a gentle hand on his arm. “Rest,” he said softly. “You hardly slept last night.” His voice was a lot gentler than it usually was, but the magician didn’t seem to notice.

“I need to know why it’s different at that time,” the magician whispered, stepping away from the prince. He closed his eyes and held his staff up, pressing the top of it against his forehead. He said the words of a spell and all of him glowed. The room filled with a bright light.

The prince covered his eyes with his hands.

“Go!” the magician called out to someone. “Go!”

The lights faded and the prince took his hands away from his face just in time to see the magician drop on the ground.

The prince tossed his tray aside and rushed over at once to hold the magician up in both arms. He could feel the magician moving gently with each breath, but the man’s eyes remained closed.

Few people knew the magician as well as the prince did. He’d grown up by the magician’s side. He’d never once heard the magician talk about how powerful he was when compared to other magicians, but he’d met magicians from other kingdoms and he’d seen them all regard him with awe. He’d never once heard the magician call a task difficult. He’d seen the magician struggle, but he’d never seen the magician collapse while doing magic.

The prince’s expression darkened. This curse was much stronger than he’d imagined.

The magician opened his eyes and stared up at the prince. His normally pale face was even paler than before. “Leave me,” he whispered. “I will be a long time yet.”

The prince shook his head. He rose to his feet and carried the magician out. He ascended a staircase, marvelling at how light the magician’s body was. He carried the magician into his own quarters and placed him down on the royal bed.

The magician gave a weak smile. “Your Majesty must be happy…” He didn’t get a chance to finish this thought because his consciousness left him then.

The prince touched the magician’s cheek and listened to make certain that he was breathing. Once he was satisfied on this account, he adjusted the pillows under the magician’s head and straightened up. He drew the curtains of the bed closed and stepped out onto the hallway to summon a servant.

The magician only regained his consciousness on the following day. The prince had remained by his side the whole time. As he’d expected, the magician woke up soon after lunchtime, when he’d claimed the curse was at its weakest.

“Music,” was the first word he uttered, staring unseeingly up at the ceiling.

“What?” The prince looked around himself, as if searching for the source of the music, although he couldn’t hear any.

“People are singing…” the magician turned his head and met the prince’s eye. “That’s why the curse is weakening.”

“Who is singing?” the prince asked in great confusion. Who could sing when there was a curse placed over the land?

The magician placed a gentle hand on the prince’s cheeks. “Two people in love.” He closed his eyes. “They live opposite each other and the curse keeps them apart, so they sing about their feelings for each other.” He opened his eyes again and studied the prince’s face.

A long silence followed during the course of which the prince waited for the magician to say more, but the magician didn’t say anything.

“What if… if more people sing, will it break the curse?” the prince finally asked.

The magician sat up. His eyes shone as he took both of the prince’s hands into his own.

The prince did not blush often. He was always very reserved in his emotions. But when he saw the sparkle of excitement in the magician’s eyes, he felt the colour rise in his own face.

“Yes!” the magician whispered.

The order went out that evening and the land filled with excitement. Precisely at noon the next day everyone was to sing. They could open their windows and sing out into their streets, or they could sit at home and sing, it didn’t matter which they did. The choice of song was left to everyone, but one detail was very important: when they sang, they had to do so while thinking of the person or thing dearest to them.

When Yuuri learned of this, he marvelled at how well it worked with what had become a kind of tradition between his neighbour and him. And what a strange coincidence that they were ordered to do exactly what they always did!

The prince had given the order, of course, but a rumour followed on the tail ends of it that the request had come from the court magician himself. Was this how the curse could be broken, some wondered.

“I didn’t know you were a magician,” the neighbour on Yuuri’s right said with a playful wink. “Here I was – thinking you were just sending someone and it turns out you were doing magic all this time!”

Yuuri coloured. “I’m _not_ a magician!” he protested. “I took the test, same as everyone else!”

His neighbour laughed. “I was just teasing.”

The balcony door opposite opened and the man who’d spent the past week singing with Yuuri stepped outside.

“Today, we _all_ get to sing!” the neighbour on Yuuri’s right exclaimed.

He was rewarded with a confused look that made him laugh.

“The prince gave the order, you see…” he began, but neither Yuuri, nor the man across the street from him were listening.

Their eyes met and they were caught in each other’s gazes, unable to look away. He found himself wishing they could sing now, but something told him to wait. It was only a few more hours until their usual tone. He could wait that long, right?

Much to his surprise, the time passed very quickly. Before he knew it, all the bells in their town struck a quarter to noon and the balconies began to fill with people.

Many people lived in that country. When the time came and they all began to sing, their joined voices carried far out over the plains that bordered the country to the south and deep into the forests in the north.

Everyone sang. Some people brought out their music instruments to accompany them. Elderly couples swayed slowly on the balconies as their voices joined in. A schoolgirl clutched her violin in one hand as she sang and wondered if she could play at the same time.

Yuuri joined his hands, his eyes fixed on the man opposite, wishing desperately for the day to come when they could be together.

And the prince sang. He stood on the balcony of the palace with the court magician at his side and let the wind carry his deep voice, mixing it with the voices of all the servants in the palace.

Above their heads, the sky filled with glimmering that hurt to look at and still everyone sang.

Not far from where Yuuri was, someone opened a door and ran out into the street. They turned around on the spot and sang with their arms spread out wide.

Everyone else went silent, stunned by the sight.

The person out on the street stopped singing.

Later, no one could explain why, but in that moment everyone was suddenly very acutely aware of just how blue the sky was.

In the deep silence that hung over them, everyone heard the clock in the nearby tower chime several times to mark that it was now half past noon.

Laughter and excited shouts filled the air and everyone spilled out onto the street. Yuuri found himself hurrying out to join them. People he’d never spoken to put their arms around him and congratulated him that the curse was lifted at last.

Someone sang. Another person called out praise for the prince and the court magician. Several people vowed that they would never return to their houses and others laughed and teased them for it.

Yuuri let out a deep sigh of relief, feeling as if a great weight had fallen off his shoulders.

And then he saw him – the man from the apartment opposite his own.

Yuuri’s breath caught in his throat and he ran with his arms outstretched. His neighbour ran towards him. They met halfway, throwing their arms around each other and holding each other tightly.

“That was… your singing is _amazing_!” Yuuri’s neighbour exclaimed.

They pulled apart just enough to take in the looks on each other’s faces.

“Thank you,” Yuuri whispered, colouring a little. “Yours too.”

“Nah…”

Yuuri reached up and caught the man’s mouth with his own. Too late he realized what he’d done and, unable to take the kiss back, he tried to make it brief, but the man held on and refused to let go of him.

When, at last, they did let each other go, they held on for a long time and stared at each other without saying anything for what felt like an eternity.

Finally one of them broke the silence, “My name is Yuuri.”

“I’m Victor.”

The curse never returned to that land and the people never learned the name of the magician responsible for it. Despite all this, the people of that land adopted the habit of filling the air with music at noon on every day of the year and every summer the prince organized concerts for all of his subjects. Every birthday, every wedding was filled with music. Most notable of all was the wedding that took place a year later where both grooms sang their vows, starting another tradition that endured for many centuries. 

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus points to anyone who can guess who the magician and prince are (hint: they're not YOI characters).


End file.
